Traynor, along with 14 fellow adults from the church, were there to help youth group members in their annual shopping trip to benefit
The Santa Fund
, a program that supplies gifts for local underprivileged kids at Christmas.

It's an event that the church's youth groups work toward all year, raising money through can and bottle redemptions and the sale of pumpkins.

This year they managed to raise $1,500, which was divided among the 18 kids on The Santa Fund list.

After a quick bite to eat at the mall, the youth group members broke into teams, each taking with them envelopes filled with money and one or two names from the list.

For each kid on the list, the teams bought at least one clothing item and one fun item.

Dann and Eherts are sure that the gifts will bring smiles to the faces of the kids on their list on Christmas morning.

And even if they won't be there to see those smiles, the shopping trip itself was enough of a reward.

"You get to go to the mall and hang out for a couple of hours and be with your friends and then wrap presents. It's a good time," Eherts said.

"It was a lot of fun. You get to make new friends while doing it and you're also helping out a lot of children who can't afford gifts," said Dann. "It's just something different and you know it help a lot of kids."

And besides, she said, who better to shop for kids than other kids.

"Everyone has that problem of not knowing what to get people, but if you're shopping for someone your own age you kind of know what you want so you can get them something like that," she said.

When Traynor talks about the project, there is a noticeable amount of admiration in his voice for the youth group members.

"This is easily the most exciting and fun filled evening for these guys," added Traynor.

"Of course, they have a little fun while they're doing it. They play with the toys and test them out, but they really put a lot of thought into it. They really seem to care about what they're buying. They're not just buying the fist thing they see on the shelf, which I think is great."

Traynor believes that the experience is all the more exciting for youth group members because "it's not just money that Mom and Dad gave them. They know that this money that they're spending is money that they earned. I think that makes it more meaningful for them and that, of course, makes it more meaningful overall."

And since they are spending their own money - and for a good cause - Traynor said they're careful about trying to stretch each dollar, often taking advantage of sales and coupons in order to get those on the Santa Fund list exactly what they want.

"I didn't get more than a dollar in change in any envelope, and in many of them I didn't get any money back," he said, noting that youth group members and their parents will often chip in extra money just to make sure they can buy those on the list what they want.

In all, Traynor said, he ended up putting just $28 back in the bank.

"I'm very impressed with these kids," he said. "It's nice to see them want to give out this money. They've worked for it, they've sweated in the field and they've returned all those bottles and cans, but rather than use it on themselves they've decided to use it on other people. It's great."